Is That Job Even Real? A Recruiter Explains How to Spot Ghost Jobs

Ghost jobs have become a growing frustration for job seekers, with 86% of 1,011 US job seekers surveyed by ResumeBuilder in August saying they had encountered a listing they suspected was not tied to a real vacancy. 

But not every job listing that stays online for weeks or fails to produce a response is necessarily a ghost job or a fake job. Rhoda Adeola, a UK-based People & Talent expert at Evotix, an environmental, health and safety software company, believes some job seekers misunderstand how recruitment works and mistake genuine vacancies for ghost jobs. 

"No recruiter recruits for fun," she says, explaining that companies have several reasons for keeping a vacancy open, from building a pool of potential candidates ahead of a hiring period to struggling to find someone who meets the requirements. Still, some listings remain online after a company has stopped recruiting, leaving applicants unsure whether anyone is actually hiring. 

But this problem is not limited to the US alone. A recent Techloy report found that fake jobs are also becoming more prevalent in West Africa, with fraudsters impersonating trusted companies, recruitment agencies, and government institutions. They use social media, professional networking platforms, and convincing online identities to make fake job offers look genuine. 

While the differences between fake jobs and ghost jobs can be subtle, both can mislead job seekers. For context, unlike fake jobs, which are often used by fraudsters to collect application fees, steal personal information, or promote fraudulent offers, ghost jobs are vacancies advertised by real companies that may have little or no intention of filling them. To identify fake jobs, check our previous Techloy report. 

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Why some jobs look like ghost jobs 

Adeola, who has over five years of experience in talent acquisition, doubts that many companies deliberately advertise positions they have no intention of filling, particularly because recruiters already have demanding workloads. 

One role means working with a hiring manager and managing more than 10 candidates at different interview stages. Most recruiters also handle several vacancies alongside reports, budgets, and other responsibilities. 

"It would even be a disservice to their time to then post a job that they are not actually recruiting for," she says, pointing to three more explanations to why this happens. 

The company is hiring ahead. Some recruiters publish vacancies before a company is ready to begin the actual hiring process. This allows them to build a pool of applications they can review when the recruitment process officially starts. 

"Some recruiters try to get ahead and publish the job in advance so that once applications come in, they can have a bank of applications to start reviewing," Adeola says. A company might do this, for example, ahead of a particular quarter. 

The role is hard to fill. Some vacancies take longer than others because companies are looking for candidates who meet specific requirements. Adeola says she has worked on roles that took six months to fill, even when some applicants had good profiles. 

The business still needs someone who can do the job, so recruiters advise hiring managers: "You don't have to settle. We have to just keep looking." 

An old listing is still live elsewhere. Some lesser-known job boards scrape listings from across the internet for traffic and advertising revenue rather than receiving them directly from employers. This means a vacancy might have closed on a company's website but remain active on other platforms. 

"Maybe the company has already closed the job on their own website, but then the job is still open on this shady or dodgy job board," she says. 

Some recruiters do not close their listings, she admits, and she does not know why. However, she notes that much of the frustration comes from a gap in understanding. 

"A lot of candidates don't understand how recruitment works behind the scenes," she says, let alone how much work goes into recruiting one candidate. 

Whatever the cause, the cost to the candidate is the same: time spent on an application that goes nowhere. 

How to spot a ghost job and avoid wasting your time 

Adeola also shared six key tips that could help you identify a ghost job:

1. Verify the vacancy on the company's website

If you cannot find the position on the company's careers page, think twice before spending time on an application. ResumeBuilder found that 32% of job seekers check employers' career websites to verify whether a vacancy exists.